Letters to the Editor - 9/7/2013

Editor: Recently I appreciated news coverage of Sen. Pat Toomey's visit here to meet with business leaders in Wyoming County until I started to hear how far he will go to score political points.

Time and again, he claims that the Affordable Care Act raises health care prices and should be repealed. The fact is that health care cost growth has slowed at only 4 percent annually since implementation, which is half of the 8 percent annual growth during the past decade. It is beyond dispute that rate increases have gone down.

Obamacare requires insurance companies to publicly justify any rate increase of 10 percent or more. After this rule was implemented the number of requests for insurance premium increases of 10 percent or more has dropped from 75 percent to 14 percent. With the data in for 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services calculates that the average premium increase for all rates in 2012 was 30 percent below what it was in 2010. As of March, DHS reports that this slowdown is continuing into 2013.

Additionally, changes to Medicare Part D have brought rebates and 50 percent discounts to eligible seniors. This resulted in savings of $750 for about 250,000 Pennsylvanians.

Another 500,000 Pennsylvania families got back $164 each because health insurance companies face a penalty if they spend over 20 percent of health premiums on executive pay and administrative overhead costs instead of our health care.

So, Sen. Toomey not only misrepresents the facts about the Affordable Care Act raising prices but then swears to repeal a bill that actually lowers premium costs, costs for seniors, and prevents insurance companies from denying insurance due to pre-existing conditions.

We need a senator who actually defends policies that help our seniors and all Pennsylvanians by making health insurance affordable.

NORMAN R. WHITE

FACTORYVILLE

Editor's note: The writer is chairman of the Wyoming County Democratic Committee.

Mood changer

Editor: I am an alumnus of the University of Scranton and you can imagine my sheer delight when I came upon the Italian Festival. Seriously. Could my luck have been any better? Well, it was when I saw a car pull out of a 15-minute parking space. What luck! I wouldn't be any longer than 15 minutes.

I jumped out and proceeded to partake in a smorgasbord of palatable delights. I couldn't decide among eggplant, penne vodka, scallops, cannolis. The list goes on.

I was enjoying the sight of hundreds of people in downtown Scranton on a hot, yet beautiful day, contributing to the failing economy of a town that is on the verge of bankruptcy, a town where my grandfather practiced dentistry in the 1920s.

Eager to get out of the heat, much to my chagrin, I found a parking ticket neatly tucked underneath the windshield blade.

Could it be possible that I was given a parking ticket on a Sunday, during the Labor Day Weekend Italian Festival?

Was it possible that Officer 580 felt it was in the best interest of the city to give a ticket to someone from Massachusetts?

Did he think it would entice visitors to consider coming back to Scranton? Did this officer believe that my $25 was going to help his city?

How to make friends and influence people is not by giving tickets on a holiday weekend when we are trying to enjoy the sight of life in a city that is slowly dying.

NOREEN G. O'CONNOR

HOPKINTON, MASS.

Murder not crime

Editor: Many people, myself included, believe that terminating an unwanted pregnancy by abortion violates the Fifth Commandment - it's murder. But because it violates no criminal statute, it's not a crime. This leaves us with a politically divisive paradox: abortion is murder, but it is not homicide.

Several writers want Congress to pass laws criminalizing abortion.

This expectation cannot be satisfied, however, because our Constitution directs the separation of church and state, and efforts over the years to codify God's laws have been deemed unconstitutional in the courts.

Too many Americans don't understand that Congress may not pass laws against activities simply because the Bible says they're sinful. One remedy would be to amend Article VI and the First Amendment.

But I submit that God does not want Congress to criminalize abortions, because that would deny mankind free will. God wants us to obey his commandments, but our obedience must never be compelled by men. Compulsion and free will are mutually exclusive.

In my response (Aug. 14) to Joe Alinoski, I challenged him to search the Scriptures for a single verse obliging us to compel our brother to obey God's laws.

Roseanne Clister took up the challenge and found (Aug. 19) several passages from the Old and New Testaments directing us to lovingly and meekly exhort, admonish and restore him when he goes astray, but she found no verses that would have us coerce, constrain or compel anyone to keep the commandments.

Keep on searching, Ms. Clister. When you get to Proverbs 26:17, please pause to ponder its meaning. Read Luke 15: 11-32, to see how free will works. Even our worst sins cannot separate us from God's love.

JOHN HUDANISH

CARBONDALE

Counterpoints hit

Editor: Kudos to Roseann Clister and Joe Alinoski (Your Opinion, Aug. 19) for their responses to John Hudanish's theological ramblings. It appears that Mr. Hudanish was caught with his theological pants down.

JOHN BANICK

DUNMORE

Cost-based fee

Editor: In your Aug. 9 editorial, noting the city's rejection (since reversed) of the University of Scranton's plan to build a new facility at Linden Street and Jefferson Avenue, reference was made that the city would lose thousands of dollars in permit fees.

Permit fees are intended to pay for the cost of administrating the permit. They are not to be used as a supplement to the general fund. General funds are to be supported by taxes. Permit fees are not a tax. See Purdon's Statutes.

JOSEPH MACIALEK

SPRING BROOK TWP.

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